(Spoiler) "The White House Butler" is reminiscent of "Forrest Gump", and also tells the changes in modern American society through a character's decades-long experience. In comparison, I prefer "White", because "A" is too fairy tale, "White" is based on the true story of Eugene Allen, adding an indispensable touch to modern American history from the perspective of black people fighting for racial equality. Of course, some people will refute that the movie world is fictitious in the end, and some critics compare the details of the movie with historical facts to find differences one by one. For example, the protagonist actually has only one son, but there are two in the film; Allen's origin is not Georgia in the film, but Virginia. The son of former President Ronald Reagan even wrote an essay protesting the film's negative portrayal of his father, deriding that the play should be renamed "The Butler from Another Planet." In fact, movie audiences are very smart. They know the difference between "real life" movies and historical facts. The protagonist of the film is named Cecil Gaines rather than Eugene Allen, and the Photo Hunt-style fault finding doesn't really make sense.
The history of African-Americans after World War II seems to converge on the three protagonists, the father and son. When the protagonist was a child, black people didn't even have the right to live. He had witnessed his father being killed by his white master, and the trauma made him only dare to survive adversity, and even as an adult working by the president's side, he felt insecure. The second son's identification with the country was manifested by participating in the Vietnam War, but unfortunately died in the war. The eldest son does not have the burden of his father, and his character design is composed of countless protesters, from challenging apartheid, nearly being burned to death by the Ku Klux Klan, and following Martin. Luther. Kim's non-violent struggle, joining the "Black Panther Party"...and then running for Congress -- it's only Obama, not him, who eventually becomes president. The role of the eldest son is the least realistic, just a symbol, but the screenwriter can use this to focus the stories of many protesters within a family, so that the orientations of the three fathers and sons can be contrasted with each other.
This play does not package the "White House Butler" as a paparazzi who "explodes the President's privacy", but reflects the "black history" of the United States, which is especially desirable. The fly in the ointment is that the "brave resistance" of the "Black Panther Party" has been deliberately suppressed, which is an omission.
Originally published on January 14, 2014 am730 "730 Perspective"
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